1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for forming a forging blank to increase the accuracy of a forged product, reduce the manufacturing cost of the forged product, and reduce the amount of chips produced when the forged product is machined.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has heretofore been known a method of forming a forging blank of metal to be forged to a desired shape under a pressure applied thereto (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-71046). When the forging blank is forged into a forged product, it is generally difficult to obtain desired dimensional accuracy. It is customary, therefore, to subsequently machine the forged product to desired dimensional accuracy.
However, the process of additionally machining the forged product to desired dimensional accuracy results in an increased number of manufacturing steps and a large amount of chips cut off from the machined product.
The machining process is time-consuming to perform and hence not efficient. Consequently, in order to increase the production efficiency, it is necessary to employ a plurality of machining tools for machining a plurality of forged products substantially at the same time. However, because the machining tools are expensive, the cost required for facility investments is increased, and the increased cost also increases the price of the final products.